


you keep me coming for ya

by dearzoemurphy



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: AU, Canon Divergent, Canon Rewrite, Ensemble Cast, Established Relationship, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Rewrite, but not a real relationship, focus on Jeff and Britta, just hooking up, secondary focus on the girls' friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:14:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23452288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearzoemurphy/pseuds/dearzoemurphy
Summary: Britta loves it when Jeff calls her señorita. But neither of them wants to admit that they want something more than what they already have.Canon divergent rewrite after family day (S1E18). Jeff and Britta have been hooking up since after Jeff's breakup with Slater.
Relationships: Britta Perry/Jeff Winger
Comments: 14
Kudos: 42





	you keep me coming for ya

**Author's Note:**

> this fic started as a 700 word document titled "sumn w/ Jeff and Britta" and turned into this over the course of seven months. I wrote a little here and there over that time, but this feels like my baby with how long I've been working on it. I hope you all enjoy!

Britta pushed her hands into Jeff’s hair as she sprung forward to crash her lips against his. She dug her nails into his scalp, eliciting a small moan. What had started as a one-time rebound slash relief of tension after Jeff broke up with Slater had become a regular near-weekly occurrence. Britta couldn’t say she was disappointed by the turn of events. As much as it hurt to admit, her and Jeff were super compatible. He intrinsically knew every secret turn on of hers and every way to make her squirm. It became fair once she realized that all she needed to do was run her hands through his hair to make him all hers.

“Mhm. Keep doing that. Yes, señorita,” Jeff practically moaned out between lip locks.

Britta drew back and let out a sharp laugh. “Señorita? What, are we in study group?” she asked.

Jeff immediately turned an extremely bright shade of red. “I…uh, guess I’m just in a Spanish state of mind while in here,” he said sheepishly, gesturing around him to the study room.

The blonde grinned. “That’s super dorky and I’m kind of into it.”

“Oh, are you now? I can pull out more Spanish if you’d like. Necesito menos ropa ahora,” he said, doing his best to be seductive.

Britta made a face. “I don’t think it was the language that did it for me. Just the one word,” she said.

“Whatever you say, señorita. Your wish is my command,” Jeff said, reaching up to pull her closer again.

The blonde attempted to stifle her growing blush. “Okay señor. Necesito ayuda con…crap. I thought it would work better if I did it, which it clearly didn’t.”

“No no, keep going. I was definitely here for that,” Jeff said with a wicked smile.

Britta shook her head as she smiled back and closed the distance between them by roughly pulling him in by the collar of his shirt for another kiss.

* * *

“So ladies, anything new since last week?” Shirley asked excitedly.

For several months, the girls of the study group had set aside Wednesday mornings to have their own meetings without the boys. Even Britta appreciated having time to gossip and talk about her personal life with the gals, which surprised her.

“The guy that’s been flirting with me stole chicken fingers for me yesterday,” Annie said, beaming.

“Oooo, Annie!” Shirley squealed.

“Nice job, that’s a powerful connection,” Britta said approvingly.

“What about you, Brit-ta? Any men in your life?” the older woman asked with wide eyes. Annie directed her doe eyed gaze to the blonde as well.

She shrugged. “Nah, things are pretty tame.”

Annie squinted at her. “Are you sure?”

Britta raised an eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t you believe me?”

The other two women exchanged a glance.

“We believe you! It’s just that…certain information has come to light…” Annie trailed off.

“What information?”

“Well… you’ve been acting…different,” Shirley elaborated weakly.

“Acting different? How the hell am I acting different?” Britta asked, quickly becoming irritated.

“Oh, you know…happier, brighter, generally less violent…” Annie jumped in.

The blonde was taken aback and quickly became outraged. “Okay, first off, I haven’t been acting any differently than normal. I threatened to strangle Pierce in his sleep just yesterday!” she replied.

“You’re hooking up with Jeff, aren’t you?” the older woman asked suddenly.

The table fell silent.

“Well…are you?” Annie asked, piercing the quiet. There was an almost sad quality to her voice.

Britta side eyed the brunette before taking a deep breath. “I am not currently romantically or sexually involved with anyone. I think we should move on and talk about something else instead of flinging wild accusations at our fellow women.”

Shirley and Annie glanced at each other again.

“Britta…we saw the two of you…in the study room,” Annie said, appearing to be in physical pain. Shirley could only nod in confirmation.

The blonde laughed nervously. “Saw us doing what? Studying?” she said a little too loudly and suspiciously.

“Doing _it_ ,” Annie said quietly.

“Doing it like on the Discovery Channel,” Shirley muttered at the exact same time.

Britta’s face started to burn. “I…um, well, you see…I can explain…what you saw was not what you think you saw…” she sputtered.

“Darling, don’t bother,” Shirley said, patting her on the arm.

“We didn’t just…see it, señorita. We heard it too,” Annie said slyly, pulling her little red recording device out of her backpack, “Something in my bag clicked it on and recorded the whole thing.”

The color immediately drained from Britta’s face. “Oh…my. God. Okay, well…you see…wait, why were you even near the study room then?”

“I’d left my backpack in there, but didn’t realize until after dinner, so Shirley and I went back in after that and…we saw you two,” Annie quickly explained.

“How did you see us though? We closed all the blinds-”

“No you didn’t,” Shirley and Annie said at the same time.

“Oh. But…how did your recorder pick up…what was going on?”

“I left my backpack in there,” Annie restated simply.

“And it was in your backpack, which was on the table next to the couch,” Britta grumbled to herself, rubbing her temples as the details of that night came rushing back to her.

“It’s okay, dear. We’re happy for you and Jeff. But for the love of all that is holy, please don’t do it in the study room any more. We use those couches!” Shirley comforted and chided simultaneously.

“No, no, no. This wasn’t supposed to happen, you all weren’t supposed to find out! I…”

“Wait, why wouldn’t you want us to know?” Annie interrupted.

The blonde sighed. “It’s complicated. I guess…we’re not dating. It’s just sex, it doesn’t mean anything,” she explained.

“Didn’t mean anything? Honey, all of your interactions for the past year have meant something,” Shirley grumbled.

“I’m being serious! It is just sex! It’s not like I love him or anything,” Britta exclaimed, fed up.

Shirley reached across the table and rested a hand on one of Britta’s. “You know…even putting love on the table means that you’ve thought about some of those kinda feelings. And that’s okay-”

“No! My point is that I don’t love him!” the blonde exclaimed.

Shirley bit her lip. “We’re probably the only ones who know right now, but everyone else will find out soon if you’re not more careful,” she said sagely.

“No one else will find out! Because whatever we have is over after today! In fact, I’m going to go break it off right now!” Britta exclaimed, bolting up from the table.

“But if you’re not dating, what do you have to break off?” Annie asked innocently.

“You’re too young to understand,” her friend shot back before storming off, combat boots clicking aggressively against the brick pathway.

* * *

Everything on campus was in bloom, the springtime weather drawing out vibrantly colored flowers planted in the greenspaces and the pink blossoms peppering the trees. A light breeze blew over the commons and made the weather the most pleasant it had been in months. The sky was near cloudless, showcasing it’s brilliant blue. Britta was too lost in her own head to notice any of it.

 _“I’m not overreacting, right?”_ she thought, _“I **need** to stop seeing Jeff. It will only continue to cause issues in the study group. Poor Annie looked so upset… and if her and Shirley already know about it…the rest will find out soon enough. Pierce would have a field day with this. Abed would make some weird TV special out of it. Troy… he’s a wild card.”_ She was almost to her next class when a familiar voice called after her.

“Hey, Britta! Wait up!”

The woman turned around and smiled instinctively. “Now why would I do that?” she asked, stopping in her tracks anyway.

Jeff rolled his eyes as he caught up to her. “You still waited.”

“Yeah, I just don’t want to build your ego up any more than I have to,” Britta said as she resumed walking.

The brunet shook his head. “You’re too much.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Have you finished the dream career essay for Spanish?” Jeff asked, quickly moving on.

Britta scoffed. “Of course not. Not only do I only know five career-related vocab words, but I also have no idea what my dream career is,” she joked.

“Mhm, that’s right. Forgot that you came here to ‘find yourself’ or whatever.”

The blonde bumped him in the side with her shoulder. “It takes time! I’m here for four years, no reason to rush things in the first.”

“Just make something up. Maybe you could write about your aspirations to be a personal assistant to a dashingly handsome lawyer,” Jeff suggested with a smirk.

Britta gave an over-the-top bat of her eyelashes. “How did you know that it’s been a secret dream of mine to make coffee and wear pencil skirts for the rest of my life?”

“Your ass would look great in a pencil skirt, but they wouldn’t be required,” he replied flirtatiously.

The blonde’s face flushed. “Well, um…can we meet before study group? Just to talk about something,” she requested.

“We could talk now. C’mon, you don’t have anywhere to be,” Jeff proded.

“I do! I have an Intro to Graphic Design class!”

The man smirked at her. “So you don’t have anywhere to be. I’ll even drive us somewhere that is less of a craphole than the cafeteria!” he offered.

Britta let out a sigh. “Fine. Where do you want to go?”

Jeff grinned, relishing his victory. “To be honest, I’ve been craving Panara lately. Maybe it’s all the awful cafeteria sandwiches,” he said, beginning to lead the way to his car.

“I feel like there’s a joke to be made about that, I just can’t think of one right now,” his friend said smugly as they entered the parking lot.

The brunet glared at her. “I will leave you here to go to your graphic design class and text you a picture of my non-mystery meat sandwich if you even try to make one,” he threatened.

Britta smirked. “For someone who tries so hard to look tough, you’re really bad at being intimidating,” she said. They reached Jeff’s car and he stopped at the door to stare her down from across the roof of it.

“For someone who has endless material in the public domain that could be used to taunt them, you never know when to shut up.”

* * *

“Alright, so. What did you want to talk to me about?” Jeff asked as he sat down with his soup and half sandwich.

Britta had nearly forgotten what she had to tell him, becoming uncomfortable when she remembered. “Well, I came to know the information that someone else came to know some other information that pertains to the both of us,” she started, dancing around the issue.

“And? I care because…?”

“Well…you see, Shirley and Annie kind of maybe sort of caught us on Monday,” Britta continued slowly.

Jeff had just taken a long drink of his broth and almost did a spit take. “They did what?!? How?”

“Apparently we were sloppy and left some of the blinds up. They came back to look for Annie’s backpack, which had been left next to the couches we were on,” his friend began to explain.

“Did we do it on the couches? I only remember the filing cabinet…” he mumbled.

Britta glared at him before continuing. “Anyway, not only did they see us, but Annie had a recorder in her bag that had been switched on.”

“They didn’t…listen to it, did they?” Jeff asked slowly.

“Oh yeah they did. Big time. Annie called me señorita while explaining everything,” the blonde replied.

“Well, shit.”

“Yeah. So…”

“What do we want to do about it?” Jeff asked quietly.

“It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the group finds out,” Britta said.

“Would that be such a bad thing?”

“You should have seen the look on Annie’s face, she was devastated! Which is precisely why we all agreed not to date or do anything with each other. It will only cause jealousy and in fighting and more problems in the group. You know Pierce would never shut up about it,” she reasoned.

“Troy would take it about as well as Annie did. Abed would make a whole TV plot out of it,” Jeff added, taking a bite of his sandwich.

Britta gave a confused look, prompting a sly smile from Jeff.

“Anyway, you do have a point. But is this your way of breaking up with me?” he asked.

“I mean…there’s no real ‘breakup’ to be had, right? But yes, I do think we should stop seeing each other. For the good of the group,” Britta said with an air of nobility.

Jeff gazed at her bright green eyes. “For the good of the group,” he repeated softly. Without meaning to, the pair drew closer and closer to each other, leaning across the table. Jeff reached out to hold the side of Britta’s face as she put a hand up to clutch his forearm. They quickly realized that there was still a half full bowl of soup between them when Britta leaned too far forward and nearly face planted into it. Jeff caught her by the arms and chuckled.

“We should go hook up in my car one more time, right?” he asked quietly.

“Mhm, yes, I would like that very much,” she replied, quickly collecting her bag as he stuffed his partly full dishes into the return basket, the pair then moving swiftly and clumsily out the door.

* * *

One car hookup and a short drive back to Greendale later, Britta and Jeff made their way into the study room and unassumingly took their seats at the table. Shirley and Annie eyed the pair suspiciously while Troy, Abed, and Pierce were discussing that day’s campus security incident.

“So…” Annie prompted.

“So! Let’s get to work. Spanish, am I right?” Britta said with too much enthusiasm.

“Yes, Britta, Spanish! Let’s get out our textbooks and begin,” Jeff said with formal cordiality.

Annie narrowed her eyes at the pair. “Why are you acting like this?”

“Acting like what, Annie? Like two students who can’t wait to study for their upcoming Spanish exam?” Britta asked pointedly.

“Nah, just acting weird,” Troy interjected.

“You’re acting like a couple that has just hooked up and wants to make sure no one else finds out about it, so you accidentally act overly suspicious,” Abed observed.

The group fell silent for a moment.

“Say, Bri-ta, is that what’s happening here?” Shirley asked, squinting at her from across the table.

The blonde’s jaw dropped. “Why would you only ask me and not Jeff?”

“Trust me Shirley, that’s not what is happening here at all. You see…I’m actually failing Spanish. My need for a passing grade merely unlocked my motivation to begin really studying,” Jeff explained suavely.

“Me too! Me too,” Britta added, giving Jeff a relieved and thankful smile.

“No, you definitely slept together before coming here, and you recently figured out that we’ve all caught you in the act,” Abed retorted.

Silence descended upon the group once more.

“We hadn’t figured out that you ALL had caught us,” Britta mumbled.

“How long have you all known?” Jeff asked quietly.

“I saw you two in our dorm room after our party,” Abed said.

“I saw you guys in the gazebo…outside…” Troy said with a shiver.

“Shirley and I saw you in the study room,” Annie added sheepishly.

“I thought you were both gay!” Pierce interjected.

Britta and Jeff glared towards the end of the table before turning back to their other four friends.

“Listen…I’m sorry you all had to see us in those…compromising situations. I know we had our agreement to not date within the study group, but it wasn’t dating,” Jeff started.

Britta nodded. “We’re sorry for any issues that may have arisen from this, but know that it won’t happen again.”

“You know that we’re not upset about it happening. We’re upset that you lied to us about it,” Shirley retorted.

“Some of us are only upset about the lying…” Annie muttered cryptically.

“Yeah, some of us…” Troy added on.

“I appreciate it Shirley, but we’re a bad pair anyway! It’s no biggie big,” the blonde said, trying too hard to appear laid back.

Jeff smiled at her with a hint of sadness for a second before turning back to the group. “She’s right. Our coupling was really just a way to keep our libidos in check.”

Shirley narrowed her eyes at both of them and opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Pierce.

“If this does happen again…can I watch?”

“NO! Absolutely not!” Britta screeched. A chorus of “Pierce!” and “Jesus, why do you have to be so gross?!” and various other exclamations rose up from the group.

“I think now is a perfect time to actually start studying,” Jeff redirected.

The blonde looked up at him gratefully. “Yes, I think that’s the best idea you’ve ever had.”

* * *

A couple of days later, Britta was struggling with a vending machine that wouldn’t give her the chips she paid for.

“Stupid…shitty…machine….oh, hey! Jeff! Come here,” she called across the lounge once she noticed her friend.

He walked over, clearly amused at her visible frustration. “What do you need?”

“My chips got stuck. You’re good at dealing with these things, right?” Britta asked.

“No. But I can start hitting it with you if it makes you feel better.”

“Nah, forget it. They were only a dollar anyway,” she said with a wave of her hand.

Jeff smiled. “So…how’ve you been?”

Britta narrowed her eyes. “We see each other in study group every day, you know that I’m fine.”

“Yeah, I know. Just trying to make conversation,” he replied.

The blonde leaned against the vending machine. “No, you want to know something. You don’t usually make small talk with no purpose unless you’re walking with someone,” she observed.

Jeff looked down. “Listen, all I want to do is ask if there’s anything I can do to make things go back to normal between us,” he said defensively.

“Aren’t they normal though?” Britta asked, confused.

“Really? You haven’t noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

“I don’t know, just the uncomfortable gazes and awkward silences when we’re walking to class together and the way we keep picking little fights during study group. Not that I care or anything, but it kinda defeats the purpose of breaking up to prevent drama,” Jeff explained passive aggressively.

“I mean, I guess I noticed some of that. But I didn’t think it was a big deal. It’ll all go away soon, I’m sure,” Britta replied.

Her friend glanced around. “Bad time to interrupt, but can we continue this discussion outside? I think I can feel Leonard eavesdropping,” he suggested, gesturing subtly over his shoulder.

Britta had to stifle a laugh when she looked behind him and saw the old man in question listening intently from a few feet away. “Yeah, let’s go towards the commons.”

The pair slowly made their way to an exit, but practically tripped over each other at the door in their haste to get out. Jeff got out the door first and caught Britta’s hand as she was about to fall, steadying her and helping her out into the open. They shared a timid smile before quickly gazing down at the brick pathway. Jeff forgot to let go of her hand as they started walking down the pathway towards the commons. Britta noticed, but decided not to say anything about it.

“Um. So…” she started.

“Where were we? Oh, yea, it’ll go away soon. See, um…there’s just one little problem with that,” Jeff continued.

“And what might that be?”

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this, and I really think I’m going crazy, but I might have some actual romantic feelings for you.”

Britta felt her heart stop. “You have…oh. I…what?” she stuttered incredulously.

Jeff laughed. “I figured you would react like this. It’s kind of how I reacted when I realized it.”

“But you’re Jeff Winger! You don’t care, you don’t do feelings or relationships or commitment!”

He looked hurt. “Well, yes. I know, this is confusing. I didn’t plan on telling you until I told you thirty seconds ago because I knew how you would react. But now, I have to ask, do you share any of the same feelings?”

“Jeff, you know that even if I felt that way towards you, it wouldn’t change anything about our situation,” Britta said matter-of-factly.

“So does that mean you don’t feel that way? And what is that supposed to mean?” he asked.

“Number one, I didn’t say that I know I don’t feel that way. Number two, it doesn’t change the reason that we stopped doing what we were doing. Keeping harmony in the study group is our number one priority,” she replied.

“What did it mean to you?” Jeff asked suddenly.

“What did it mean to me?” Britta repeated incredulously.

“Yeah. What did it mean? Why did you keep coming back around?”

“I guess…it was fun. You were fun. And I trust you more than I’ve trusted any past hookups. It was nice being with someone that I was friends with because you knew me pretty well,” she replied.

“I could say the same for myself. But as our friendship grew and as there were more physical interactions, the lines kind of… blurred, you know? It felt even better than it ever did with Slater because I knew more about you. I cared more about you,” Jeff explained.

Britta bristled at the mention of his professor ex-girlfriend. “I could say the same, I guess.”

“Wait, when did you date Slater?’ he said with mock surprise.

The blonde laughed, suddenly put at ease. “Didn’t you know? I was the reason she broke up with you,” she said dramatically.

Jeff gasped overdramatically. “You were the other woman!?”

Britta laughed and squeezed his hand, causing him to notice their interlocked fingers. He decided not to say anything about it either.

“So… all jokes aside, I’ve wanted to be with you since day one. In a more casual way than I do now, but the whole study group thing kind of started because of it,” he redirected.

“Your point is?” Britta asked in a suddenly hostile tone. She let go of his hand and noticed they had reached the center of the greenspace.

“I don’t know. Just… I’ve had feelings for you since the beginning, so this has been… hard for me. And hard to admit that it’s hard. And it… hurts to see that you haven’t been struggling at all,” Jeff said quietly as they sat down on a bench underneath the shade of a large oak tree.

Britta was stunned by his admission of feelings.

“I’m sure that’s shocking to her me admit, but-”

“Jeff, since day one? I thought all you wanted from me was sex. It took you having a different girlfriend before you completely agreed to being friends! So when hooked up the first time after family day, I thought that was all this would be. I honestly thought I was nothing more than a rebound until it kept happening again and again. But to protect myself, I didn’t connect it with my emotional attachment to you. My friend Jeff was different from my hookup partner Jeff,” she burst out.

“You only assumed what I thought! You never asked me how I felt while we were doing things! You only asked when I was available to do things and where I wanted to do them,” Jeff deflected, raising his voice and becoming visibly angry.

“Because that’s all it was! It was doing things at times and places!”

“Oh, really? But it wasn’t! You’re just going to write off Carrino’s and-”

“Jeff, please! Why are you flying off the handle? I’ve never seen you this emotional,” Britta pleaded.

Jeff gave a look of embarrassment.

“It’s not a bad thing. But Jesus, you could have told me any of the things you were thinking while it was happening,” she followed up.

“I’m sorry. I’ll drop it now,” he said.

“You don’t have to.”

“It’s clear you don’t feel the way I do and never will. So what’s the point? Besides, I have a class to catch,” he said, checking his watch and standing up quickly before storming off towards his next class.

Britta was left alone on the bench to process everything that had just happened.

_“Did he mean everything he said? Was I really more to him than just a casual-”_

“Man, you and Jeff really got into it there. I wonder how you’ll ever overcome this tiff,” Leonard interrupted her train of thought, popping out from behind the tree.

“Oh, piss off, Leonard!”

* * *

Britta went immediately home after her last class of the day, skipping study group without telling anyone. She entered her apartment and immediately went for the cabinet containing her wine stash. As she was pulling out a bottle of red and a glass, her phone buzzed in her pocket.

 _“Jeff, Britta, where are you?”_ a text from Annie to their study group chat read.

 _“We’re only waiting five more minutes for you >:(”_ a text from Troy followed.

The blonde silenced her phone and shoved it back into her pocket. She poured herself a glass of wine and made her way over to her couch.

“Hey, kitty! Aren’t you a good kitty? You don’t have confusing feelings, do you? Do you?” she spoke in a sing-song, childlike tone while scratching her cat behind the ears. She sat down on her couch and propped her legs up on the coffee table before switching on her TV.

 _“What am I going to do about this? I can’t skip study group forever. But talking to Jeff clearly won’t fix this since he’s decided that he wants to actually be with me… he had his chance and he blew it! Why does he get to come back demanding another shot when the one we took didn’t end well?”_ she thought, mindlessly scrolling through Netflix. Instinctively, she took her phone out of her pocket and was greeted by a dozen more texts from various group members.

 _“Seriously, where are you guys?”_ Annie asked.

 _“Sorry, I had a doctor’s appointment that I forgot about. Britta mentioned that her cousin was unexpectedly coming into town. We’ll be back tomorrow,”_ Jeff had replied.

Britta was touched by him covering for her, but didn’t think about it for too long and kept reading through the messages.

 _“Sounds to me like you two are porking,”_ Pierce replied.

 _“You don’t have to lie to us Jeffery!”_ Shirley said.

 _“I’m not lying. I’m really at the doctor,”_ Jeff texted. Britta read it in his dry sarcastic tone and smiled slightly.

 _“Prove it,”_ Troy said.

Jeff replied with an attached image of a doctor’s waiting room that he had clearly downloaded from Google.

 _“What about Britta? Where’s this cousin? Is she hotter than Britta?”_ Pierce asked in succession.

 _“Knock it off, Pierce!”_ a final message from Annie read.

Britta threw her phone to the other side of the couch. She grabbed a cushion and curled into a ball around it as she immediately burst into tears.

 _“Why is he making me so upset? Why do I care so much if things are never the same between us ever again? How did he get so attached to me? More attached than he was to Slater?!”_ she began thinking, _“Do I feel the same way about him? Am I just where he was a few weeks ago? Scared… and confused… and in denial.”_

Britta shot straight up. “No, no, no, no! This is not how this is supposed to go,” she mumbled. She stood up and began pacing back and forth across her living room. She had no idea what she was supposed to do or why this was affecting her so strongly. The only impulse she had was to grab her phone once more.

 _“Hey, do you guys want to meet for dinner? It’s on me :)”_ she texted Shirley and Annie.

A few minutes later, Shirley replied _“Of course! Where should we go?”_

 _“How about Shaw’s?”_ Annie texted.

_“Perfect. Meet you there in 15?”_

* * *

Britta slid into a faded red booth next to Annie at a round corner table in the artfully lit establishment, taking in the judging looks from both women.

“Hey guys… what’s up?”

“Is this having dinner or is this an emergency meeting?” Shirley asked immediately.

Britta sighed and put her head in her hands. “Okay, this is an emergency meeting of the study group girls. I’ve been dealing with something over the past few days, and…”

“Hello and welcome to Shaw’s! My name is Heather and I’ll be your waitress tonight. Can I start off by taking your drink order?” their waitress interrupted in a chipper tone.

“Um, can you give us a moment sweetie?” Shirley asked sweetly.

“Sure! I’ll come back around in a few minutes,” Heather said before bouncing away.

“Where did she even come from?” Britta whispered.

Annie and Shirley laughed. “I have no idea,” the brunette confirmed, “but back to the point…”

The blonde looked down at the table. “Well, uh, so. The thing I’ve been struggling with…”

“It’s Jeff, isn’t it?” Shirley asked judgmentally.

“Yeah, it’s Jeff,” Britta grumbled in reply.

“Now Britta, I know you care about Jeff in a romantic, sexual way. You care about Jeff in the special way only a woman can care about a man,” the older woman started.

“Okay first off, that’s an awful, heteronormative way to put it. Second off…”

“Hello again! Are you ready to put in your drink order?” Heather asked, appearing once more out of nowhere.

“Has it been more than a few minutes?” Shirley asked in a sugary sweet tone.

“It’s been about a minute! I’m just trying to get your drinks to you as fast as I-”

“Can you just give us five minutes to talk?” Britta asked with a smile.

“Sure, I’ll see you all then!” the waitress said before skipping away once more.

The girls turned back to each other and sighed. “Alright, where were we?” Annie asked.

“Uh, second things second. Jeff and I hooked up. Between one and twelve times. And that’s all it was! There was nothing romantic about it! The closest thing we had to a date was him ordering us a pizza after sex once!” the blonde defended.

“I have been on a few more trips around the sun than you have. The way you look at each other says so much more than you think it does,” her older friend said.

“And that’s exactly the problem! He told me today that it all meant more to him and… I kind of realized that it meant more to me too,” Britta finally admitted.

Shirley squealed while Annie gave a confused look. “Why is that a bad thing? If you like each other, can’t you just be together?”

“Not exactly. There’s still the fundamental issue of dating within the study group and the issues it would cause…and we kinda had a fight after he told me how he felt today,” Britta explained.

“Britta… if my past feelings for Jeff are what’s holding you back, I want you to know that it was just a childish crush and not anything more! It won’t cause issues,” the brunette assured, placing one hand on her friend’s arm.

“That’s sweet, Annie, but that’s not the main problem. The fabric of the entire group would change and Abed would make a big deal out of it and-”

“You’re scared,” Shirley interjected.

“What?”

“You’re scared of being happy. You keep coming up with excuses for why you and Jeff can’t be together, you tried to sabotage the whole thing with your fight today, you skipped study group to avoid confronting it, and you called us here hoping we would tell you that this is crazy,” the older woman elaborated.

“I’m not scared! I just didn’t know what I wanted. And still don’t, really,” Britta said.

“That’s a lie. You know exactly what you want and refuse to acknowledge it for more than a moment at a time.”

“How do you know that?”

On cue, their waitress appeared once more. “Hi guys, it’s been five minute! Can I take your drink order yet?” she asked, still maintaining her cheery tone.

“NOT NOW HEATHER!” Annie screeched. Everyone in the area was shocked by her sudden outburst.

“Alright, just… just flag me down when you are ready,” Heather squeaked out before scurrying away.

The girls resumed their conversation immediately as if nothing had happened.

“Okay, so how exactly do you know I’m lying?” Britta asked.

“So you don’t know what you want? You said earlier that you and Jeff had never been on a real date, but I know you’re lying about that because I saw you at Carrino’s!” Shirley burst out.

The table fell completely silent.

“Britta… is that true?” Annie asked quietly.

She let out a quivering breath. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s all true. I am scared. I don’t think I’m capable of handling a relationship with someone I actually care about. I’m scared of messing up our friendship and messing up the study group. I got scared when we tried to take that first shot,” she admitted in a rush.

“First shot?” the younger woman prompted.

“The date at Carrino’s, where Shirley saw us. How did you see us without us seeing you, by the way?” Britta began.

“Don’t worry about it. Maybe I was on a date sitting at the table behind you and the two of you were too busy making googly eyes at each other to even notice me,” Shirley replied. Annie did her best to mask a snicker.

Britta glared at the pair before continuing. “Anyways, after the first couple of times, Jeff suggested that we try being a real couple. One that goes on cute dates and gives each other thoughtful gifts and all that jazz. He thought he was on a roll because of how well things went with Slater until they didn’t. So that weekend, we dressed up. He picked me up at 7, had flowers in his hand and drove us to the restaurant, everything. The dinner was…amazing. But I…I've never had a relationship like that. We both freaked out over how well it went and agreed to slow things down. It went back to a casual fling, and we never talked about it again,” she explained, “Today he tried to bring it up and I just got angry because he gave no indication about how much he cared then. He had a window of opportunity and didn’t take it. But I suppose…the same goes for me. We both didn’t know how we felt because this is outside the norm for both of us. We don’t do feelings.”

“So?! Why are you still here? Go to him! Tell him all of this!” Shirley urged.

“I can’t! I’ve never done this sort of mushy gushy thing before!” Britta protested, “Besides, I don’t think he’ll want to see me. He seemed super upset after our fight.”

“This is what was making him upset, right?”

“Well… yes.”

“So go tell him that you do feel the same way he does!” Annie exclaimed.

“But I…”

“What are you still doing here? Go, go, go!” Shirley encouraged, trying to get her to go without giving it a second thought.

“Why do you want things to work out so badly?” Britta asked.

“We’re all a little bit tired of your…” Annie started.

“Bullshit. We’re tired of you two’s bullshit,” Shirley concluded.

“Shirley!” the younger woman exclaimed, swatting her friend on the arm.  
“It would really mean a lot to you if I went to go talk things out with him once and for all?” Britta asked, downtrodden.

“The whole study group would be extremely grateful,” Shirley said, switching back to her usual sickly sweet tone.

The blonde sighed. “Okay, fine, I’ll go. We can get a raincheck on girls dinner next week,” she said.

Annie grinned. “Absolutely.”

“Make sure to tip Heather extra,” Britta instructed as she shrugged her jacket on and swung out of the booth.

“Okay, bye!”

“Good luck!”

Once their friend was gone, Shirley leaned close to Annie to whisper.

“We’re going to dash out and go somewhere else so that we don’t have to deal with Heather, right?”

“Agreed. How about Japan House?” the brunette whispered back.

“Perfect.”

With that, the other two women slid out of the booth and ducked out the door as fast as they could, not noticing Heather gazing forlornly out the front window.

_“Someday… someday I’ll have my revenge.”_

* * *

Meanwhile, Jeff was stuck on the couch in his apartment next to a drunk Ian Duncan, whom he had invited over after Britta’s rejection. He thought hanging out with an old friend would help with his sudden rush of emotion, but it was a decision he now wholeheartedly regretted.

“...and you see, that’s why us Brits were actually in the right,” Duncan concluded after ranting nonstop for several minutes. His accent had come out thick and heavy, making him nearly unintelligible.

“Mhm,” Jeff mumbled, taking a large swig of beer.

“Oh, come on Winger, you can’t still be upset about this afternoon. You can get more women far easier than most of us,” the professor said, swatting his friend on the arm.

“That’s not the issue here! I- I’m mad at myself,” Jeff began, “I don’t understand, Duncan. I’m Jeff Winger. I don’t have feelings. I don’t form attachments,” he said, echoing Britta’s statements from earlier.

“Listen, Jeff, that’s who you once were,” Duncan replied, suddenly sounding nearly sober.

“What do you mean?”

“That’s who you were pre-Greendale. You have to admit that you’ve changed over your time here. You created a group of dependents that rely on you as a leader. You rose to the occasion with the blonde chick by your side. You cared for the band of misfits together. Psychologically speaking, you started viewing her as the mother to your unruly children. So you became emotionally tied to her in a way that you’ve never been connected to a woman before,” he explained.

“I guess all of that would make sense,” Jeff said simply.

“Do you know what the great part is though? You get over it the same way you get over any other breakup. Hit the town for a drink with your mates and then go home with a woman who looks like she would fuck the shit out of you,” the professor said, raising his near empty beer can up.

“Usually that works for me, but that’s essentially what we did. She comforted me post-Slater breakup and then…whatever we were doing started.”

“But didn’t you want her from the beginning of the group? That’s where you went wrong, my friend,” Duncan pointed out.

Jeff was about to reply, but was interrupted by a knock at his door. He turned and glared at Duncan. “You better not have invited anyone over.”

“Relax, I have no one to invite over. I have no friends here. You’re not even my friend, just someone I’ve associated with,” the other man assured.

The person at the door knocked again.

“I’m coming!” Jeff called, grumbling as he made his way to the door.

“What do you- Britta? What are you doing here?”

The blonde looked up at him and smiled sheepishly. “Hi. I… I don’t know why I let Annie and Shirley talk me into doing this because this seems very scary now that I’m looking at you in your doorway and I think it would be best if I just-” she began, attempting to dart away mid-sentence. Jeff reached out and weakly grabbed her by the arm to keep her from getting away.

“Let Annie and Shirley talk you into doing what?” he asked.

Britta gulped nervously. “Well, you see… remember earlier today? You said you might have certain feelings for me, I said it could never work out?” she said.

“You’re hardcore! I like you,” Duncan called from the couch. Britta gave a puzzled expression, to which Jeff sighed and opened his door wide enough so she could see the psychology professor sprawled across his couch.

“Do you have a way home?” Jeff called back, not turning away from Britta.

“Yup, I’ll just see myself out. This seems like it will be uncomfortable,” he replied, standing up and collecting his now empty beer can.

“You’re not driving yourself, are you?” Britta asked, expressing concern at the state he was in.

“Rest assured I will be taking an Uber. But I’m offended, I’m not that drunk,” he said before tripping over the edge of Jeff’s coffee table and falling flat on his face.

“Oh my god! Are you-”

“Yup! Right as rain! My Uber’s on it’s way, enjoy your gab ‘n smash,” Duncan said, springing up immediately and making his way towards the door, “That’s what us Brits call talking and then having sex,” he whispered when he was by Britta. He giggled at himself before scurrying down the hallway as fast as he could.

Britta turned back to Jeff and looked at him judgmentally. “You’re not concerned about him at all?!”

“Nah, this is the closest to sober I’ve seen Duncan in years. Do you want to come in?” he asked, gesturing to the inside of his apartment.

The blonde rolled her eyes and stepped inside. Jeff closed the door behind him and looked at her expectantly.

“So…”

“So?”

“You were reminding me of how you rebuffed my affections earlier,” he said sardonically.

Britta found herself blushing and bit her lip. “Right. I didn’t come here just to remind you of that.”

“I figured. What did Shirley and Annie talk you into doing?” Jeff asked again, becoming less hostile as he began to connect the dots.

She looked down at the floor and gave a small, nervous smile. “This is mildly terrifying, and at my age, it shouldn’t be? But I don’t know how to do this because I’ve never done it before,” she started.

Jeff stepped closer. “And what, may I ask, is the point?” he said in a humorous tone.

“The point is… the point is that now, I’m here and I’m looking at you, and I’m not sure what the point was,” she trailed off, gazing at his chiseled jawline in the soft, warm light.

He cracked a small smile. “It’s okay, take your time,” he said gently, reaching out to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear.

Britta met his gaze and smiled back, realizing that he had figured her out. “Okay so I think we both know the reason I’m here, but I prepared a whole speech on my way over here and I’m really proud of it.”

Jeff took a step away from her. “The floor is yours, m’lady,” he said jovially, bowing and waving his arm.

A wide grin broke out across Britta’s face. “Jeff Winger, when I met you, I thought that you were nothing but a pompous, misogynistic ass. And my initial assessment was correct,” she began.

“Okay, ouch,” Jeff interjected.

She smirked in spite of herself. “Getting to know you didn’t make it better initially. You were selfish and didn’t care about anything except getting out of here. But over our time in the study group, you changed. You showed us that you’re so much more than that. You’re charming and funny and incredibly witty and empathetic and caring when you choose to be. You’re someone that people can’t help falling for. Not always in a romantic way. You just have this…this way of enchanting everyone you ever come across. I was lucky enough to watch you go from the person who didn’t care about anything or anyone to a caretaker, a problem solver, and a shoulder to cry on. A compassionate leader. I wish everyone got to know the Jeff that we know,” she said, pausing to take in Jeff’s shocked expression and the suggestion of tears behind his eyes, “The best part was being by your side for all of it. Your partner in crime, your partner in growing up, the mother to your Greendale children. I’ve never felt the level of companionship we have with anyone else.”

“If I look like I’m crying at any point, please know that it’s because I must be allergic to whatever perfume you’re wearing,” Jeff said jokingly, moving a hand up to dab at his eyes.

Britta smiled and released a breath she didn’t know she had been holding, causing her own tidal wave of tears to threaten to come crashing out. “Until today, I was scared to tell you all of this. Hell, I was scared to admit it to myself. I kept our public and private affairs separate because I knew if things didn’t work out or if you left, it would hurt like a motherfucker. I knew if we kept going on dates like Carrino’s, I would never want to let you go. And I’ve never depended on anyone like that. So I pretended that I didn’t need you.”

“It’s why I didn’t want to do any more of that either,” Jeff concurred.

“Right. And today… I’m sorry, I panicked. I’ve been using the study group dynamics as an excuse to avoid confronting my feelings. Truth is, they’re all adults. They would all adjust,” she apologized.

Jeff slowly started making his way over to her. “What exactly are you trying to say, señorita?” he asked cheekily.

Britta tried to cast an angry look in his direction, but failed to contain her growing smile. “Jeff Winger, I love you. Platonically. But…I think there’s something more there, too.”

“I would call hooking up over a dozen times ‘something more’ for sure,” he remarked glibly.

The blonde tried to contain her growing smile. “If I haven’t made it abundantly clear yet, I want ‘something more’ to be more than that. I want to hold your hand and watch the sunset and have cheesy dates at Carrino’s and lay on your couch scrolling through Netflix for 20 minutes before deciding to rewatch an episode of Friends. It’s awful and painful and terrifying to admit that, but I want to take the next step if you still do,” she said, pausing for a moment, “So. That’s how I feel. How do you feel?”

Jeff smiled warmly. “Let’s do it,” he said simply, moving as fast as he could to close the distance between them. He looped his arms around Britta’s waist and pulled her in close before delicately locking his lips with hers. She quickly and hungrily deepened the kiss, bringing her hands up to cup his face. Lost in the moment, she wasn’t quite sure when or how Jeff got her pressed up against a bookshelf, but she wasn’t going to question it. Her fingers dove up to twine themselves in his hair, tugging ever so slightly in the middle of a deeper kiss.

“Oh, I missed this,” he practically moaned out, “it was so damn hard to leave you.”

Britta drew back far enough to look at him. “It was hard to leave you too.”

Jeff drew back even further, letting his arms fall casually around her waist. “Do you know what was even harder than that?” he asked.

“What?”

“Walking away from your door the night after our date. I wanted to tell you so many things after that night, but… I thought I wasn’t ready to say them and that you wouldn’t want to hear them. I was right on both counts, but it was hard in the moment.”

“I want to hear them now,” Britta said softly.

Jeff smirked. “I loved the way your hair looked in the glow of the candlelight. I loved how you seemed nervous when I picked you up, because I didn’t think anyone could have that effect on you,” Britta interrupted to swat at him, the man chuckling as he fended off her feeble attacks before continuing, “I loved dancing with you because we got to be close for the first time without the purpose being only sexual. I just…got to feel your heartbeat and hold your hand and it was amazing.”

He began tracing small circles on the outsides of her arms, moving in closer and dropping the volume of his voice slightly. “I’d never really felt anything like that. Not with past girlfriends. Not with your mortal enemy Slater,” he said with a chuckle, prompting another swat from Britta.

“But I was scared you didn’t feel all of the things I did. And honestly, I was embarrassed about it! You said it today. I’m Jeff Winger, I don’t do feelings or relationships. So I decided to leave that night, because I knew I would have said something that I would have regretted if I stayed. But do you want to know something? Every time I saw you after that, I wished I had stayed,” he concluded, his mouth right next to Britta’s ear and voice barely above a whisper.

Her breath hitched. “What would you have said?” she asked softly.

“That I thought I could fall in love with you,” he whispered, hot breath tingling the side of her neck.

A chill went down Britta’s spine. “I think I could fall in love with you too,” she whispered back. She grabbed his face in both hands and pulled it towards hers to resume kissing him.

After a few more moments, Jeff started laughing. Softly at first, but it soon became uncontrollable.

“What? What’s wrong?” Britta asked, frowning.

“I’m so sorry, but it’s just crazy that I went from someone who couldn’t even think about romantic feelings to someone who told someone else that I thought I could fall in love with them. Isn’t that crazy?” he asked incredulously.

Britta balled one hand into a fist and socked him in the shoulder. “Can it. Keep kissing me,” she directed.

“No, no, it’s a good thing!” he said hastily, “It means you must be pretty damn special.”

His friend tried to hide her growing smile. “Talking about feelings is overrated. I’d rather just show them,” she said, gripping onto his shirt and pulling him towards her before he could react.

* * *

The next day, Jeff and Britta walked into the study room together. They were boisterously talking and laughing, going dead silent as they assumed their seats around the table. Britta shyly tucked a piece of hair behind her ear as the rest of the group stared the pair down.

“Bri-ta? Jeff? Anything you would like to share with the group?” Shirley asked sweetly.

“Nothing we would like to share, no,” Jeff cut in, glancing to his right to smile at Britta.

She smiled down at the table. “Nope. Nothing we’d like to share.”

“You guys hooked up again. But this time…this time there were feelings,” Abed assessed.

Both of the study group members looked down sheepishly, doing their best to hide sly smiles.

“Ooo! It happened! Are you two finally dating for real?” Shirley squealed.

“Something like that, sure,” Jeff said nonchalantly.

“I’m so happy for you guys!” Annie said sincerely, reaching a hand across the study table towards Britta, who took it and smiled warmly.

“Yeah, congratulations and all that. I wonder if this will be a Ross and Rachel or Monica and Chandler situation. Or maybe neither of them? Or both?” Abed mused, mostly to himself.

“If the sex gets boring and you’re looking for a third…I’m usually available,” Pierce said suggestively.

A collective rumble of “oh, Pierce!” rose up from the group.

“Hey, now you really are kind of like our Greendale parents,” Troy observed.

“I don’t know if we want to put that kind of pressure on this quite yet,” Britta said.

“Oh, come on honey! Can’t you see the little tyke is just excited that mom and dad are back together?” Jeff retorted with over-the-top acting. He leaned over and draped one arm over Britta’s shoulders, jostling her slightly.

“Awwwww!” Shirley and Annie exclaimed simultaneously.

“Oh, knock it off,” Britta grumbled, the begrudging smile slowly spreading across her face saying otherwise.

“Both. It’s definitely both. A long history of drama, but a big ‘aw’ factor,” Abed concluded.

“You know we don’t have to talk about this all day! We do still have a class to study for!” Britta protested.

“Do we? I think getting the intimate details of your nighttime tussle is far more important,” Pierce interjected.

The whole table grumbled in turn.

“Maybe it is as good a time as any to try and actually study,” Jeff suggested. He took his arm off of Britta and glanced at her, giving a small smile.

The group was too busy making small talk as they were taking out their textbooks to notice her whispered ‘I love you’.

**Author's Note:**

> I promise that from now on, my main goal is singlehandedly resurrecting the Jeff/Britta fanbase. 
> 
> if you enjoyed this work, please leave a comment and/or kudos! I want to hear any thoughts/comments/opinions/criticism you may have.


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